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Friday, August 26, 2016

Plumbing new depths

Seen the latest issue of Sports
Illustrated? If not, Browns fans, buckle up. It’s going to be a long, a
very long season.

In their National Football League issue, SI staffers review
how each team will fare this season with a game-by-game prediction of how well
they perform. In the Browns’ case, however, the word “well” is, well, an
oxymoron.

If you thought last year’s 3-13 record in Mike Pettine’s
last season was bad, SI’s prediction makes it look good by comparison. Staffer Jacob Feldman, in a game-by-game graphic above the story, says the
Browns will do something this season they have never done in their history: win
only one game.

Since the return in 1999, the closest the club came to
losing all its games was the expansion 1999 season when it won just twice. On
two other occasions, it lost three and compiled five seasons with four
victories.

Feldman believes the Browns will lose the first 11 games of
the season, then knock off the New York Giants at home on Nov. 27, the week
before the bye, before dropping their last four games. The Giants are predicted
to finish 8-8.

In 2009, the Browns came somewhat close to winning just one
game, rallying to win their last four games after an 1-11 start.

Las Vegas oddsmakers have made the Browns underdogs in every
game this season. That doesn’t mean they’ll lose every one, although Feldman
believes they’ll come close. But in the NFL, as they say, on any given Sunday . . .

This, it would appear, is how far this franchise has fallen
in the eyes of the media. If Cleveland coach Hue Jackson is looking to
incentivize his team, he might consider thinking about using this media slap in
the kisser as a start.

There is no question the Browns’ roster lacks the talent to
put up a winning season, let alone one in which they at least compete. That is not
going to happen. But win only one game? Not even this pessimist believes it
will play out that way.

Thrice in the last 18 seasons have the Browns gone through a
season without beating an AFC North rival at least once. That was 2006 season,
when they finished 4-12; 2008, another 4-12 finish; and 2011, yet another 4-12
record.

They have never in the last 18 seasons gone an entire season
without at least one victory on the road. And going back to their inception in
1946, the Browns have gone winless on the road in only one season, 1975, when
they were 3-11 under coach Forrest Gregg.

Somewhere, somehow, the 2016 edition of the Browns will win
more than one game. Maybe even more than two games. And maybe on the road.

But not much else.

***

Now that he has been traded by the Browns to the New England
Patriots, it will be very interesting to watch the future trajectory of
Barkevious Mingo’s career.

The lean outside linebacker never really progressed in his
three years with the Browns. He was too lean to play defensive end, his
position in college, and clearly was out of place at linebacker.

The Browns tried everything with him. They tried crashing
him on blitzes; dropping back into pass coverage; and helping with the run.
Practically nothing worked.

He went from five sacks as a rookie to two in his second season
to zero last season. The former No. 1 draft choice suited up for 46 games,
started 15 and wound up with just 108 tackles.

A draft bust? Bill Belichick up in New England apparently
doesn’t think so and surrendered a fifth-round pick next year to make that
determination. If anyone can successfully tap into Mingo’s talent, it’s
Belichick. How well he does bears watching.

We won’t know for a while since Mingo is joining the
Patriots so close to the beginning of the regular season. It will take some
time for him to learn a new system. But it is intriguing that Belichick at
least wants to take a look.

Maybe he sees a young Willie McGinest in Mingo. The 6-5
McGinest, who played three seasons with Cleveland in the twilight of his
career, began his 15-year career in New England at around 255 pounds and beefed
up to 270. Mingo is listed at 6-4 and near 250 pounds.

Browns fans will get a chance to see Mingo when the Browns
and Patriots play in the fifth game of this season, a game that will see the season debut of Pats quarterback Tom Brady. Mingo most likely will be a bit player in
that one.